Bavinck, Barth, and the Uniqueness of the Eucharist
PAUL T. NIMMO
108-126

As always, SBET has an incredible line-up of book reviews as well. In this issue, to highlight just one, Luke Bretherton reviews Graham Ward’s Politics of Discipleship. Here is a teaser for those interested:

But if, as Ward contends, ‘to act is fun- damental to being political’ (p. 261) what constitutes constructive forms of Christian political action and how might we account for them? Ward is too nervous about action, too polite perhaps, to suggest what should be done. I detect the disabling stasis in an over-emphasis on the apocalyptic in Scripture combined with a heavy investment with post-modern tools of criticism. As a way of unveiling ‘what is the case’ or ‘what is really going on’ under the shimmering surfaces of the post-modern city and beyond the all-enveloping clamour of the entertainment industry such a combination is a powerful and prophetic mode of description. Yet, while this combination of the apocalyptic and the post-modern might be very revealing, it leaves us with little scope for concrete public action and long- term, mutually responsible forms of association (and the building of the kinds of institutions that can sustain them) that are central for any real Christian politics. Moreover, the apocalyptic is not the only genre in the Bible. Indeed, it is used rather sparingly in Scripture. To emphasize the Bible’s apocalyptic voice as against its other modes of address is to do a disservice to the Canon. (p. 143)